#totheark theory

[bleed-more]

My Updated Headcanons for Seth Wilson

Since a lot of my attention is on Seth right now, I'm writing some updated headcanons for him with things I've learned over the past 4 years! I'm starting with my HCs with evidence and will write my HCs without evidence later >:3c

HEADCANONS WITH EVIDENCE:

- Seth's dog name is Link (Joseph mentioned in a livestream that's Seth the actor's dog's name so in typical MH fashion I imagine dog actor Link also plays dog character Link)

- Seth is about as tall as Brian (this isn't even really a hc but I used to draw him short so I wanted to clear that up)

- Seth did all the TTA entries that include fried images and red motifs (based off of Night Mind's theory that Tim-themed entries are black and white, Brian-themed entries are stereoscopic, and Seth-themed entries are deep-fried/red. They used these colors to both communicate who's speaking AND to let the recipient know who the message is for.)

- Seth used to be Christian but fell out of it by Season 2 (I think Seth is responsible for all the Christian iconography in the first season i.e. stigmata, ark, deluge, etc. considering neither Brian nor Tim were part of TTA yet, and he slowly abandons that faith because.......)

- ...Seth thinks he is a messiah of some kind (from TTA's "Forecast" where he says "AMIAPROPHET." [TW DEAD ANIMALS & ANIMAL CRUELTY FR PLS READ WITH CAUTION] Forecast uses footage from the USSR's "Experiments in the Revival of Organisms: 1940" in which you see a disembodied dog's lung being inflated and deflated by a machine in an effort to keep a dismembered dog's head alive. I don't think it's a coincidence TTA used a dismembered dog to refer to Seth ((or what Seth has become)) and that Seth is both alive(-ish) and has saved others from death, but only in the same fucked up corrupted way you see in the USSR's footage. Which leads me to...)

[END TW]

- ...Seth is trapped somewhere between the line of life and death and is sticking around for the unfinished business of revenge killing Alex (in the TTA entries, while many things are convoluted and unclear, one thing that is very consistent is TTA's hatred of Alex. Seth is vengeful for the death of himself, the attempted and successful murders of his friends. From TTA's "Decay" where Seth is clearly addressing Alex, he says "HE[Jay] WILL LEAD ME[Seth] TO YOU[Alex], LEAD ME TO DEATH[because his job will be done then], LEAD ME TO THE ARK[salvation and an end to his and Alex's suffering])

- Seth is the one responsible for Brian, Tim, and Jay surviving during Alex's first murder attempt (Alex couldn't bring himself to *actually* kill his friends back in 2006, so he lured them to the park and used blunt force trauma to knock them unconscious hoping leaving them for dead out in the park would be enough. Seth, however, had already caught on that something was wrong after Sarah's disappearance (I am going to write a whole thing about this eventually hehehe) and so he knew to be at the park, and after Alex left them, Seth made sure they were safe (there is also info I have here about a lake but that's worth a whole other post, send an ask if you're curious <3)

- And finally, Seth had been well ahead of everyone else in figuring out what was going on (Seth was the camera and tech guy, so it would make sense he would be the first to see what's happening on these cameras, and investigating what might be causing all of this. Seth was the one who coined the term OPERATOR. He understood Alex's actions were being influenced by this creature Seth was seeing while editing Marble Hornets. And I also think Alex knew Seth was catching onto his murder attempts, and that's why Alex took no chances and shot Seth (the first instance of Alex using a gun in the series) instead of hitting him over the head with a pipe and leaving him for the Operator like the others.)

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND IF YOU GUYS HAVE ANY OF YOUR OWN THEORIES THIS WAS REALLY FUN TO WRITE AND I CANT WAIT TO MAKE PART 2 <3

[ceramicbeetle]

Desperately trying to make sense of Alex's motivations in Season Two and you know, I do eventually have to wonder if maybe Alex wasn't actually lying in the majority of those tapes.

Like, we tend to assume that Alex's motivations have been a consistent throughline since the college years, but do we actually know that that's the case? Do we know for sure that Alex was acting in deliberate, calculated ways in 2006; or could it be that he's telling the Truth on those olds tapes when he says he's blacking out and can't remember what's happening to anyone? After all, if we're assuming that Season 2 Alex's motivations are the exact same as his motives in Season 3, then it doesn't make any sense at all that he spend months working with Jay to try to find Amy; Season 3 Alex would have attempted to kill Jay like, on sight just to get things over with as quickly as possible and contain the spread of contamination as best as he could.

But, maybe, if Alex really had been separated from Amy after the events of the 04-04-10 tape, and if he really doesn't know where she is, then maybe that could make things start to make more sense. Maybe he really had been watching Jay's channel, and seeing Jay start going through the same things he went through in college without things devolving into violence and disappearances, and wondered if things maybe could play out differently this time. Maybe he really did send that tape to Jay to ask him for help, maybe he really was just trying to find Amy.

But then, instead of actually being helpful, Jay makes it extremely clear that he's a lot more interested in stalking Alex than he is in finding Amy. Alex asked for help, and instead there's a bunch of masked dudes on Jay's heels that keep attacking him, Jay is breaking into his house, stealing his things, leading the Operator right to him all over again, keeps trying to get other people (namely: Jessica -- if Alex is being honest when he says that his call reassuring her that Amy had been found was an effort to make Sure she stayed away from everything that was happening) involved; and instead of anything getting better, instead of anyone finding Amy, things are just getting worse all over again.

It's not until after the incident at the tunnel that things seem to start rapidly devolving. Rather than a calculated attempt to finally follow through with his need to curb the spread of contamination, this is very clearly an outburst of rage and terror. Alex's "I told you not to follow me" line in conjunction with Jay speculating that Alex didn't know who that guy was, to me, pretty firmly seems to speak to Alex having mistaken that stranger for Jay. From his point of view, Alex knows that Jay and totheark know where he live, have broken in before, he suspects that Jay stole a key to make it easier to get into his house, and he's been followed on the daily for months -- Alex is sitting at the tunnel because he doesn't know where else he can go without being constantly surveilled, hunted, and assaulted. And instead of getting a moment by himself to breathe, Jay followed him out there all over again (it feels like Alex looks directly at the camera in Jay's footage of him from this day; he knew for a fact that Jay was there), and then to make matters worse now 'Jay' won't even keep his distance anymore.

So Alex lashes out. And it's not until afterwards that he looks down and finally recognizes that this wasn't Jay -- it was someone completely innocent. Things have finally reached the low point he was at in college all over again; maybe even worse this time. If Alex doesn't remember attacking anyone in college, but he was at least partially conscious of it this time, then things have reached an entirely new rock bottom, they've reached an absolute point of no return.

He has no idea what happened to Amy, and he's spent months trying to find her with no hint of where she could be; he doesn't know where Jay actually is or what additional trouble he could be causing at this point; he does know that now innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire (in regards to the stranger in the tunnel, and also Jessica now that Jay has her phone number, and the untold number of people Jay got involved when he started posting videos to the Marble Hornets channel); things are spiraling out of control and there's no one left to ask for help. The situation isn't getting better, it's getting worse; things aren't getting easier to handle, they're just getting more out of hand; the negative impact is spreading and who knows how much further it can still go?

So, Alex decides to go scorched earth. He disfigures the body with the rock either to hide evidence or to make sure the guy would actually stay dead and not just get back up to start his own cycle of contamination in a few years. He tries to give Jay one last chance to back off, and Jay instead admits he's been talking to Jessica, acts obstinate and lies about not having Alex's spare key, and then breaks into Alex's house a second time (minimum). If Alex doesn't stop him now, who will? Alex met with Jay planning to kill the others, and then himself, so he could put a stop to this once and for all and keep things from getting any worse than they already were.

Maybe it makes a lot more sense if, rather than being a strangely incomprehensible detour on what should have been a straight path, the events of Season Two were the breaking point that put Alex on that path to begin with.

[vero-lynn]

If y'all thought I was crazy before now I'll show you how insane I can get.

You guys see this guy? Yeah? Okay. Once again I'm here to share my headcanon that this is Masky who's driving the car at the moment. I've been thinking about it A LOT.

So, When Tim is talking to Jessica, that's him. That's him UNTIL he starts having a coughing fit unprovoked and pretty much safe from the operator.

After the coughing fit happens, and Tim seems to be feeling better, the camera glitches. It's not DURING the coughing, it's not BEFORE the coughing, it's AFTER the coughing.

Now, Jessica didn't glitch it, the operator didn't glitch it, it was acting JUST fine before, so, then, what did it? Well, this is where Tim switches up with Masky yet again. But I have more than this to make my theory a little better.

So, when we see "Tim" drive the car later on, he's clearly holding in his cough, he never did that before, he always coughs freely without an issue, so why hold it back now? Then there's the pills.

He doesn't take them. The camera is turned around and we don't hear him opening the bottle, we don't even hear the rattling of the pills. Nothing. The bottle is put away.

Masky also takes the pills, we know that, he has to - it's not like they're only for Tim, but I think it helps Tim to "keep" Masky away as well, at least a little bit.

And right now, what I think masky is doing, is, well, what he's always done ! Making Tim forget. Letting him leave all of it behind and move on, live a normal life like he always wanted to, and how he always tried helping him do. There's nothing left to drag him back, everyone who he considered dangerous is gone, Tim can finally move on.

But I have one last thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

Everything is fine.

But Vero!! What about it? It's a normal phrase! WRONG!!! This is a callback to totheark. And I'm so serious. Brian uses "everything is normal, everything is fine, I worry about nothing, because nothing's on my mind." ABOUT THREE TIMES. Once in marble hornets, and then twice in the comic. And it's always to comfort himself and keep himself calm.

If Brian uses it, why wouldn't Masky? To comfort himself, and to comfort US. As he always did with Tim and Brian.

Everything is fine. There's nothing to worry about.

Thank you for your attention.

[sunnytheopossum]

Okay… I may or may not actually be starting work on that Marble Hornets fan comic I mentioned wanting to make… like I wrote up and entire script and came up with a bunch of thumbnails and everything. Don’t expect it to be finished anytime SOON, but it’s happening. Here’s some concept art I made for it though!

Elevator pitch: TOTHEARK: Downpour will be a 4-chapter-long black and white (and red) webcomic about the founding, operation, and eventual downfall of totheark. I will be taking a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite Marble Hornet theories/headcanons to fill in the blanks (such as Seth being the founding member of totheark) but for the most part, this comic will attempt to be almost 100% canon-compliant whenever possible.

Also, suggestions for iconic scenes/popular totheark headcanons you’d want me to include are very much welcomed! I’m going to try and make this comic somewhat brief (or at least as brief as I can physically manage as someone who can’t shut up), so I’m thinking of splitting it into four “chapters” ranging from 0-3 with an average of 7 pages per chapter to correlate with the seasons of MH + a post-season 1 chapter dedicated to exploring the initial motivations of the founding totheark member. With that in mind, any scene involving Hoody/Brian, Masky/Tim, or Seth is on the table! You probably won’t see much of Jay, Jessica, or Alex (other than being mentioned in passing) seen as I will be focusing on totheark almost exclusively, but feel free to suggest scenes including those idiots as well.

[ngage2003]

To me, one of the most confusing assumptions in the Marble Hornets' fandom, is the idea that Brian's weird little doll is supposed to for some reason be representative of the Operator.

Why the hell would be the case though? We know for a fact that Brian hates the Operator with a passion and I can't imagine why he would leave a representation of it for Jay, and maybe most damning of all it has little sewn dots for eyes.

So, what the hell is up with that little doll thing?

Alright, so first things first, lets talk about how/where this doll shows up, because it mostly does so in two main places in Marble Hornets, in Brian's house, and with Tim's medical files.

Let's talk about that first time.

✦ Entry #18

Ah yes, by and large one of my favorite entries of season one, but before we get fully into it the whole that Brian's creepy little doll plays in it, lets talk about what precedes it.

Before this entry comes out, the ToTheArk channel releases one of its own best entries from season 1 of Marble Hornets, Signal. In this video, Jay is told rather explicitly to "come back" to Brian's house and to "find me," all while there is creepy audio about the narrator showing the listener a secret, taken from the short film Silent Snow, Secret Snow.

Entry 18 is of course the first place where we finally see Masky for the first time, but I don't believe this message is from him. Rather, I think Brian knew or told Masky to be at the house, and lured Jay there as a way to scare him, as endlessly throughout Season 1 that really is the prerogative of these two, to scare or intimidate Jay away from the mystery.

Alright, that makes sense, yeah? But, so, what's the deal with the doll?

It honestly could be placed there just to freak Jay out, but I just want to point out the fact that Brian has a habit of doing things with a sort of artistic flare. There is a logic/through line to these actions, to his videos and his choices, even if it isn't apparent to us the viewer.

-

Moving on, ✦ Entry 60,

Alright, so admittedly this one is the main fodder for my theory, but I think it incredibly interesting that Brian leaves the doll for Jay to find with the medical records.

Yeah sure, maybe he is pointing out the fact that Tim had seizures due to the Operator, ok, but most of that folder isn't really about Tim's seizures but instead his childhood and hospitalization, even including some papers about his therapy sessions from MUCH later in his institutionalization, about 7 years later. (If you want to read more about my thoughts on that, click here.)

Why the hell would Brian leave the doll here? He is a man of details and what is he trying to tell us with this one?

Well, Dearest Reader, allow me give my two cents.

Are you familiar with the concept of a therapy doll?

They are a specific exercise often used in child's therapy, where a small doll is usually decorated and used as a tool to help a kid express their feelings and practice social skills, working through them in a safe environment with the doll.

This doll can often represent an important person in the child's life, or even themself at times, acting as a way to help with internal emotional management as well as external! And we know based on Tim's records, "Pediatric Admission Profile," Page 2, "Section XI - Teaching" that Tim has emotional barriers to learning.

Dear Reader, I believe this curious little doll, which we always see in relation to Tim, (either with his protector alter or with his medical files,) which people in the fandom love to misconstrue as a representative the Operator in some sense, is his therapy doll, from all the way back when he was institutionalized.

I believe he kept it as he went through therapy, and it was just something that accidentally stayed with his medical file, along with his older records. I believe that Brian knew of it and decided to lay it in wait before Jay saw Masky as a way to unnerve him, but he thought of it in the first place because it was Tim's, and by extension it was Masky's too.

I think the reason it is un-decorated is because, while abandoned at the institution, Tim didn't have an adult he trusted or wanted to talk to who could be the doll, and he didn't have a solid self image either due to his dissociation. That is why it is blank.

This doll does not represent the monster of Marble Hornets, but rather its martyr.

[saniscurious]

About Slenderman and the Operator

Okay, this is like literally my favorite topic, and the main reason why I created a blog focused on creepypastas and Marble Hornets stuff. 

NOTE: Sorry for the misspellings and wrong grammar, I’m blind af and English is not my first language (you should know that if you already saw my ‘about me’ post)

I’ve just finished Marble Hornets (if you haven’t watched it yet, what are you waiting for?) and I’d like to talk about the entity they show in the series; The Operator.

The name was given by the fans I guess. I never saw that Jay, Alex orT Tim actually gave the entity a name (and if they did, please just let me know).

We all know the Slenderman, yes that tall faceless man in a suit. He was created for a Photoshop contest of creepy edited pictures or something like that.

This character has been taken by a lot of creative minds and they have done a lot of media, but some of them really, really affirm that they saw the entity.

A lot of people say that The Operator, the one from the videos of Marble Hornets is Slenderman.

I don’t think so.

Slenderman, it’s kinda silly. As a person who loves creepypastas like the way I love chilaquiles, I can tell that all the theories and stories around Slenderman have no sense, maybe just some of them. They try to give it an explanations to its wills and desires. 

The Operator is really different, in the series they never explain what it is exactly, all we know is that there’s something called “Ark”. I guess that is something like and afterlife(? I’m not sure yet, and totheark’s videos never explains it clearly. 

And I know I might be overthinking it, but I have a lot of free time (not really) that I’ve been keeping my mind busy.

What if those things are real? that would mean that there are two entities that are copycating the other one, or maybe they are relatives (if it is even possible) or maybe, just maybe, what if they are the same entity but it has different and customized methods to eat its vicim’s minds?

So, my blog will be pretty focused on my theories about the creepypastas (if they were real lol) around the Operator and the Slenderman. Also I like to explore both of the characters ‘cause I find them quite interesting and we can create even more media if we get creative. 

PD: I’ve been writing on a nothebook a lot of notes about my theories, so I’m not that lost, I promise.

PD: Don’t worry guys, this is just for fun, just to make my life interesting(?

[archivehornets]

apologies if this is too broad or specific of a question to ask, but do we know at all what the origin of the alcoholic jay headcanon is? it's something so seemingly widespread in the fandom (existing since at least 2013?) that i just keep seeing it pop up everywhere without any real backing behind it. it makes me wonder if it started from a joke the cast made or maybe some popular fan content (like how the cheesecake thing came from cooking with totheark) because of how specific it is

We'll investigate this more deeply, but I'd like to invite the followers of this blog to perhaps contribute theories- I've been a fan of MH for perhaps fifteen/sixteen years, and I have NEVER ONCE seen this. Tim has seen it a handful of times, but never as something to be taken seriously. Does anyone have any insight?

[wickerfox]

HELLO YES ITS ME IM COPY PASTING THE THING HERE:

YOU JUST MADE THE CHILD IN ME BLOOM. THE QUESTION LIST (THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IM SEEING THIS AU BUT GOD FORBID):

× Who's Hoodie

× Is it in the same time setting as MH

× Who PLAYS AS ALEX

× Did it start the same way as a dumb school film project?

× From what I understood Scar takes the role of Tim, is bro a chainsmoker too LMFAO.

× Is Grian canonically gay too

× Would it be a wild correct guess that Amy is Lizzie and Alex is Joel since yk based from obvious plot points?

(before I start, placing this disclaimer here at the top since I have friends who don't frequent mcyt and might get confused, but when I talk abt this au I'm specifically talking abt the characters, not the content creators themselves. Anyway)

SO IM GONNA GO AHEAD AND SHARE WHOSE WHO FIRST

Jay- Grian, it made the most sense in my head, but I actually flip flopped on this so many times bc he also works so well as Tim or Alex, but at some point I went "wait it's an au, we can see how the story changes with Grian as the protag" so Grian's the protag now

Tim/Masky- Scar, I'm a transparent desert duo enjoyer and had a similar flip flop with him as I did Grian bc he'd also work as Jay but I was halfway through that drawing and had a similar thought process to the one i had abt Grian

Brian/Hoodie- Jimmy, I wanted to keep the cast focused to life series and evo members and he made the most sense to me lore wise, especially with the idea that in this au he was one of the ones with the earliest exposure to The Watcher (bc I love Canary Curse symbolism)

Alex- This one was the toughest choice bc no matter what a fav is going to loose it. Good thing this based on the Life Series! As much as I Love the idea of Joel and Lizzie as Alex and Amy, I actually went with Martyn. Again, the character is pretty involved with the Watcher Lore so it made the most sense as the character that is arguably most effected by it. (Although for a brief moment I considered Mumbo Jumbo bc,,, how fucking funny would that be)

Jessica- Jessica's gotta be Pearl right? It makes the most sense for it to be Pearl, I don't even need reasoning for this it makes sense

Amy- So who's Amy then? Scott actually! He's not Martyn's boyfriend in this, he's just a really good friend of his who was super involved in the production. Also like in mh, he's Pearl's roommate.

Sarah- Ren. Can't have a life series au featuring desert duo and not have some renchanting. Who else would be one of the leading actors in Martyn's short film?

Seth- Big B, again Evo connection made sense to me, and depending on your own personal theory on who the third person running the totheark account is, both Big B and Ren have interesting implications, even if both their rolls are p minor in this au

With the cast out of the way other questions !!!

It's set in a kind of nebulous time frame that's probably a little closer to present day, but it does still start with a student film project. When asked Why Martyn chose to use tapes he says something about wanting a more authentic feel to the film but in reality he just thought using tapes was a cool idea and doesn't want to admit that it's kind of impractical now.

In this au Scar doesn't smoke, but instead I like the headcannon that he just has boxes of candy/bubblegum cigarettes on him at all times. He'll pull one out, pause, and offer one to someone and when they say no he's just like "Okay, your loss" and watch as they get all confused when he starts unwrapping it asdfghkgkdjhfjsh

Is Grian gay in this au? Whose to say. (Real answer tho, I'm a notorious Jam shipper and while I'm not an active shipper when it comes to hermitcraft or the life series, I don't really mind it so the relationship is left kind of ambiguous)

But yes THANK YOU DO MUCH FOR GIVING ME A CHANCE TO TALK ABT THIS IVE BEEN RAMBLING TO MY FRIEND WHO DOESNT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING IVE BEEN SAYING FOR DAYS

[vinegar-rights]

i love your totheark design!! it's a really neat idea to make that spooky white critter a real character and combining seth n sarah into one being (i think?) is a really neat idea!!!

thank you so much!! Yeah I've been thinking abt this character sooo much. I think it originated from a nexpo theory video? He theorized that Seth was the secret third member of TTA and I was like "cool, im going to turn this into something else". I also wanted to get sarah into the spot light bc she was just generally frogotten lol. I loveeeee that white guy... tee tee ay.

[xombe]

Brian

Brain was always there; as an actor on Marble Hornets, as a partner to the masked man, he lived right under the audience's nose. He haunts the narrative, almost every clue every hunt has his fingerprints on it. Behind the scenes, pulling the strings, trying to drive the players in the right direction, he's an agent of the Web.

Where Brian goes after the figure drags him away is unknown. Alex tells us that he, along with the rest of the actors, is gone, so it's safe to assume that either Alex thought he killed Brian, or that the Operator got him. He doesn't stay gone forever, though, and rejoins the narrative as the hooded man, chasing some unknown goal, though ever present.

As the hooded man Brian works with the masked man in the early season. The only goal confirmed for the audience is his desire to kill Alex, which we see him almost accomplish in the rock scene. When Tim partners up with Jay, the hooded man attempts to reconnect with him through cryptic messages. The "LIAR" written on the hospital wall when Tim and Jay investigated it was meant for Tim, though the meaning behind the message is unknown.

Noting Brian's potential involvement with Totheark adds to the connection. Entry #61 heavily implies that the hooded man is involved with Totheark in some form, whether that be as the sole entity, or part of the collective. Totheark has a larger goal than just killing Alex, otherwise he would have no reason to taunt Jay or drive him toward "the ark."

Were I to attach another entity to Brian, it would either be the Lonely because of his isolation from the rest of the group.

Much of this connection relies on Brian being part of Totheark, something I attempted to avoid in the beginning, but realized you can't talk about him without mentioning the theory. I really enjoy Brian's character, because he doesn't have much confirmed in the narrative he's an open book for crafting theories and fan content.

Alex // Jay // Tim

[blindrapture]

june 21st. day 2 of the strange short Tally Marks logs.

fun fact: the unfunny jokester voice was, of course, added with the Fifth Draft (which first added Attacheds to the story), and I stuck with it in all later drafts for these logs because. well, it's kind of heady, not something I'd ever had the opportunity (or, been asked) to explain.

but it's something like an iteration on totheark. a really dry two-step joke, in some ways-- "god, what if we suddenly got totheark responses out of nowhere? god, what if totheark just really wanted to tell some bad jokes?" there is, like, a tiny bit more depth to it than that, having to do with 1) who this jokester voice is, and 2) an engagement with a conflict Rapture is very interested in in the long-term, the conflict of horror and comedy (which are really synonymous) versus drama. this jokester voice is not a terribly deep engagement with that conflict, but it was important to me, when reconsidering this long Internet Fic as a physical object (a Book), to thread in some variations on the theme in places that otherwise were in need of a bit more density. (see: textual spatiality, as opposed to temporality. a joycean concept.)

you can discard the Theory stuff here, it's fine. it's all really just about the strange sequence of reactions I wanted the reader to have, including a specific headspace of confusion. act 1 is visceral and rather basic, by choice. the relevance of all the Theory stuff will wait for later.

[throatofdelusion12]

I'm rewatching marble hornets and am on entry 45

I have a theory on the operator, in one of the previous entries, Alex said something about stretching people out on the trees and well who do we know that's stretched. Also, up to this point no one had called the operator that other than totheark but when Alex is making more notes he calls it operater.

[ngage2003]

Alright. So, here is a fun question.

What the fuck is up with Brian's/"Hoody's" continuous use of religious-coded phrasing?

⟦Note: I am Jewish and not that familiar with a ton of Catholicism, and am mostly just going crazy here. Don't take my theory too seriously unless you agree with me in which case do.⟧

⟦Also, content warning: graphic verbiage towards the end, also heavy religious discussion, duh. (Also maybe sacrilege?)⟧

What I mean specifically is his use of the term "Deluge" in one of his videos, the association between himself and the word "Advocate," and most importantly, him calling the face connected to the Operator "The Ark."

Footnote: Face as in the center of the Ark is the "mouth" of the Operator, (in other words, how it eats) and the Ark as a whole is the closest thing we see to a representation of what it is, an unfathomable monster, like a face can be seen as a representation of a person/personhood.

These names are on first read are just seemingly randomly chosen, but I think there is some small sense here, if a bit abstractly. Based on comic 3.5 of Marble Hornets, ToTheArk, we know Brian is stuck talking in codes, so lets try to unravel this one.

Lets start with the simplest.

】 Advocate

Brian calls himself "Advocate" in relation to an old video of himself where he is talking to Alex, but due to the glitchiness on the video I believe you could kind of take this as a general statement about himself. Regardless, what the hell does that mean?

When we use the term "advocate" in plain speech, it means a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy, but there are specific ties with it under Catholicism. There is variation depending on what translation you use of course, but one example of religious use is in one title of Christ as "our Advocate with the Father" (I John 2:1). Another is how the word advocate is used in relation to the Holy Spirit, (John 14:16,) as another advocate to more or less "help [humanity] and be with [them] forever".

"Ok, cool I guess," you say, "but uh what does that have to do with Marble Hornets?"

Well! While Jesus is off having a Phoenix Wright case with God/being god's messenger pigeon for humanity, Brian is helping someone himself! Specifically, he is helping Jay, the person all the ToTheArk videos are for, for the most part. He is quite literally guiding him around, what for we could debate, but he clearly has his own abstract chess game going on and leading Jay by a metaphorical carrot on a stick is part of it.

I believe this is why Brian calls himself the Advocate. He is with not only Jay but also Jessica, while also being on the former's side, (he doesn't want him dead like the Operator does at least,) and also helping and/or guiding him. I mean, he gets him out of his house before Alex burns it down, as example, and he gives Jay the name of the Operator, along with hints that Alex is dangerous/doesn't exactly have his best intentions. Hell! In Entry 78, if you're comfortable jumping that far ahead, he even gives Jay a knife to free himself with, and his camera back. This of course accidentally leads to Jay's death, but I don't think Brian wanted that to be honest, not with how he hates Alex and the Operator. Brian is just unfortunately human rather than actual divinity, and probably couldn't plan for that.

Let's move on.

2.】 The Deluge

This one is in my opinion the least clear, which is why I stuck it in the middle, but I am still going to give it a shot.

The "Deluge" video is a ToTheArk video where we see a flashing light, weird audio, and then the words, "watching you," along with the description being "///". Purportedly, if you speed up and reverse the audio, it is saying "Alex" over and over again. Combining it with the ending words, we get "Alex [is] Watching You."

What is the Deluge in Catholicism though? Well, simply put its the Great Flood, specifically that really swag one (/sarcastic tone) that God summons for 40 days and nights to drown everyone for being too sinful or whatever, except for his favorite boy, Noah, and his family, who are inside a big boat. Awesome. Cool. Makes sense.

We could get up in the semantics about the "ark" of Noah and "ToTheArk" but A) I have a whole chapter on ToTheArk and The Ark, and B) I personally believe the Ark is named for the Ark of the Covenant so lets just scrap that idea.

Instead, I believe that in this part, Brian is making a comparison between Alex and the Deluge. After all, Alex did kill the cast of Marble Hornets in kind of rapid fire succession like a quickly rising Deluge would, all except for Jay who he had emotional ties to. (And Tim but Tim's survival is complicated and isn't purposeful.)

"Wait!" You cry, "how do you know that Alex killed everyone in rapid fire succession??"

Well, technically I don't, but I do know he tried to kill like 3 of his friends in literally the same 24 hours, which would make sense as if the extremely close cast of Marble Hornets noticed other people were missing and they were last seen with Alex, that would get suspicious, but I digress. All of these killings take place in the hospital in my opinion, where the Operator seemingly has some power, or at least is able to appear more regularly like other places in Rosswood and Alex's house.

First of these was the least successful, Tim, who Alex led to the hospital in Entry 56 and then beat into unconsciousness with a stick that is canonically a pipe based on cast commentary. We see him (or in my opinion, Masky,) scrambling around at night then, using the camera to find his way in the dark, before hiding against a wall. It is very likely to me that he stayed here over night. There are some strange parts of the tape though, like Alex being randomly in the hospital at night, as if he was looking for Tim for some reason.

Regardless, there is then Brian in Entry 51, who is led to the hospital before the Operator snatches Alex away for a moment. (In my opinion probably to Operatorture him a bit because he was hesitant to kill Brian because he actually knows him as a friend (Entry 84) but whatever, coughs.) Brian then wanders around the hospital with Alex's camera before finding Tim huddled up against a wall, much to his confusion, before the Operator shows up and some weirdness happens and Brian dies while Tim/Masky disappears.

Now, we have seen Masky go to the Hospital after Operator encounters seemingly to cope, so maybe this was coincidence, but there is some dialogue in Entry 51 that makes me believe this isn't, especially based on Entry 22, where we see Alex seemingly leading Seth either to his death by the Operator in a strange dilapidated building at night. (Hey, that sounds a bit familiar?) That dialogue is :

Brian: Where’s Seth at? Alex: Uh, we came out here yesterday and he wasn’t feeling too good so he just stayed home today.

Hey that is convenient. You brought him here yesterday and now he just magically isn't feeling good.

In my opinion it is kind of obvious here that Alex probably killed Seth and Brian along with trying to kill Tim after merely finding a convenient place to do so. This was all in the span of 24 hours or less, kind of much like a certain flood might.

This moment is definitely a subversion though, (as use of christian imagery often is in Marble Hornets) as rather than the Flood being a tool of God to destroy the wickedness of men or whatever, Alex is becoming a tool of the Operator to feed it.

And finally, 3.】 The Ark

Wooo Boy. The Ark. Ok. okOkOKOK.

Now, we all know what Brian named the face/mouth of the Operator "The Ark," but what IS the Ark in Catholicism? Maybe you're raising your hand right now and saying "ah that thing Noah went on" and you are technically correct but also wrong. There is a far more important Ark in Catholicism than that one.

Lets talk about the Ark of the Covenant real quick, specifically what it represents rather than solely that fun little golden box, as much as I would love to talk about it and the arks of synagogues.

Ok so I am probably going to mangle some theology but stick with me. There are two Arks of the Covenant in Catholicism, the one of the Old Testament, (the first book of Christian canon which more or less covers backstory,) and the New Testament, which is more or less Jesus's teachings.

Sidenote: The Old Testament is NOT the same as the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible. The former is one scripture while the latter is technically three, and even if it shares some similarities with the Torah, (the first part of the Tanakh,) the two are pretty different and both have their own wildly differently translations and cultures around them.

The Old Testament's covenant is of similar design to that of Judaism's, being a symbol of the covenant between God and his followers, built by the holiest of man's hands but carrying divinity in the form of the commandments within it.

The Ark of the Covenant of the New Testament though is a bit different, as it is Mary.

She literally carries the covenant between God and man, the connection between him and his followers. She builds it inside her, acting as both carrier and partial creator to this firm bridge.

I believe, Brian gave the Ark its name, because in a sense, it is its own sort of womb.

The Ark is a close off yet impossibly living environment, one that bridges between our reality and the true center of whatever it and the Operator are. It feeds by leeching off of the world outside it, reaching through Rosswood and growing and gorging. Much like the natural parasitic nature of an embryo or fetus to its mother, it is tied to our world, dependent on it, dependent on us even as it warps and robs people of themselves.

Whatever is beyond the Ark, it is something as unfathomably monstrous as divinity, a holy tapeworm that siphons off nutrients from our world, warps it to fit its needs, literally shifting around the land to get closer to satiating its hunger, apathetic to the rules and limits of our world.

-

Even as we get to this answer though, we still technically haven't answered our original question.

Why is Brian of all people using this continuous religious-coded phrasing?

Well, this I believe in part has to do with how the Ark feeds. It is as much stomach as it is womb, digesting you slowly, acidity peeling back your layers until it eventually gets to your core, your most fundamental beliefs and self.

Alex's core was Jay in a sense, which is why he refused to kill him, at least until the Ark and Operator fully broke him down at the end of season 2, at which point he fell apart completely as a person in season 3. (I.E. he stopped shaving, he didn't get new glasses when Brian knocked off and presumably broke his in Entry 67, he started constantly corrupting film.)

Brian's core is still in tact though, even with how ruined he is by the Ark and Operator, left only able to speak in codes.

I think Brian was raised with a strong sense of wrong and right. It is also why he becomes so obsessed with Alex dying, with Jay surviving, with taking on this great burden of playing this complicated chess game against this paranatural entity and stopping all this. Right and wrong were simply taught to him at a very young age, ingrained into him, and his compassion and empathy, (the things that led to him goading Tim into helping because Alex needed actors and inviting Alex to dinner because he was lonely,) were torn away by the Ark.

I think his moral compass could in part be so strong be due to, or at least in conjunction with, the fact he was raised religiously. I think he probably strayed a bit from his religion in College as most people do, but it is still something integral to him, something at his core that he knows even when nothing else is making sense.

This is not to say I think Brian is still religious now, (I doubt you could look into the center of the Ark and still be religious honestly,) but it is why he clings to religious metaphor in the middle of all his strange codes.

That is my headcanon.

Thank you for reading.

[saccadesoup]

HIII

RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM IN TOTHEARK VIDEOS!!! THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS??? :O

Intellectual conversation prompt for intellectuals

OUGH YES TY FOR BRINGING THIS UP /GEN

unorganised ramble under the cut

starting with the name ToTheArk itself, it’s a pretty clear reference to Noah’s Ark. i think the operator represents the sin that plagued pre-flood humanity, sickly and spreading, taking hold of anyone it touches. TTA is hellbent on finding ‘the ark’ (“FIND ALEX/FIND THE ARK”) which is some form of salvation from the operator - the whole concept is like a slightly twisted metaphor for the bible story.

in the actual videos, rain/water imagery is used a lot, further solidifying this metaphor - the rain in ‘impurity’, plus the title of ‘deluge’ literally means a huge flood. the underwater/ripple effect in ‘broadcast’ combined with the question in the description (“are you drowning?”) makes me think TTA is actually asking something along the lines of “are you tainted by the operator? will you drown when the flood comes? do you need to be cleansed of his sin?”

also the stigmata symbol is so interesting to me... the clip of alex bleeding from his head like how the crown of thorns on jesus’ head would’ve made him bleed. then TTA wanting alex to “bleed more”

imo the motive behind using this religious imagery could simply just be. to fuck with everyone. they all grew up in the bible belt, were probably raised catholic or some other denomination, and by using these symbols of their childhood and forgotten faith… it’s almost like TTA is mocking them. religious trauma n all that

also not really related to anything just something i wanted to point out - TTA’s videos have 3 distinct styles, possibly reminiscent of the holy trinity: the son, the father and the holy ghost, all coming together to form one entity, the christian god, or in this case, TTA (all of this plays into the “3 people running it” theory). throughout marble hornets, TTA does ‘play god’ quite a bit, often seeming all-knowing (especially early on in the series). they’re able to do things that seemingly shouldn’t be possible, such as filming their videos without getting caught or having tapes that they shouldn’t reasonably have access to.

it’s been a while since i’ve watched through the whole series so if some of these don’t make sense in context just ignore them LMAO

[creepy-spooghetti]

The “Ark” Theory

OKAY, so there are a lot of theories out there about Marble Hornets, and I likely haven’t even seen half of them before. But one of the main questions around it is, what exactly is the Ark? There have been speculations that the Ark is Alex, that it’s the “Own Zone” as Joseph called it, or even that it’s a certain mental state that you have to put yourself in.

But what if it’s none of those? What if the Ark isn’t even physical at all? Here’s a theory; there have been many instances when totheark talked about the Ark, one of their more known quotes is, “He will lead me to you. Lead me to death. Lead me to the Ark.”

And so I was thinking, when you die you can either go to heaven or to hell, and if they were talking about one of these places you could only get to them if you did, indeed, die. Now we know that totheark is searching for something, and this “something” is the Ark. It’s unsure who exactly they’re talking to several times; it could be Jay, it could be Alex, it could even be Tim. But maybe it’s none of them. Maybe they’re trying to reach out to someone else for answers, maybe they’re looking for guidance from someone that they’re unable to find.

Here’s where we get into the theory.

What if the “Ark” in question is Jesus? Or rather, salvation? Considering the fact that the Operator is obviously an otherworldly, sinister being, it takes people who die to the Own Zone, which is the other world. Its other world. Remember when Tim got teleported there during Entry #65 and he saw the man Alex had killed with the rock? All the surroundings were dark. You couldn’t see past the corpse.

What does the KJV Bible say about hell? “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” -Jude 6. Hell is a dark place. But at the same time, it’s filled with flame.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” -Revelation 20:50. What do we know about Tim? He smokes. We also know that his old hospital was burned down. Most don’t know that Tim himself was the reason it burned down, though. That quick shot of the melting grill, along with the fire as Tim gets teleported back to his room in Entry #83? The fire started in his room.

So maybe that’s why the Operator latched on so tightly to Tim before it found Alex. It was attracted to fire. We know that the devil is associated with fire, not because he’s from hell but because he’s going to be thrown into hell. 

So in this case, let’s say that the Operator represents Satan, the other dimension represents hell, and Jesus is the Ark. Then let’s say that, in terms of Noah’s Ark, that “hell” is the flood. It’s the place nobody wants to be taken to, the place of eternal darkness, flame, and suffering. And totheark doesn’t want to be caught in the flood.

So then what would the Operator be? I thought about this a bit and came to the conclusion that it’s sin. Or rather, the influence of sin. It affects everybody it manages to get its hands on, and Alex is a great example. Then Alex would be the people, the sinners that needed to be wiped off the face of the earth. The only way to get away from the flood would be to find the Ark, which in this case, would be Jesus.

So the Own Zone is the flood, the Operator is sin, Alex is the sinners, and Jesus is the Ark. The only way to escape the flood, ultimate death, would be to find the Ark. But totheark says “lead me to death”. So maybe they want to die, but they don’t want to be taken to hell, which we’ve seen is the Operator’s dimension that it takes victims to. 

It took the man that Alex killed, we can assume it took Jay, and it took Alex. I would say it took Jessica, but since she’s alive and well maybe it only brought her out of danger because she is its new puppet, its ‘people’ that it manipulates. She’s the new sinner.

In the end, maybe totheark wanted one thing besides getting revenge on Alex, and maybe that one thing was salvation. They wanted safety, they wanted to be sure they would be okay in the end. They wanted the Ark. 

Did they get it? Well, we don’t know what happened to Seth, but after Hoody died and was revealed to be Brian, did the Operator take him? No. Even days after being dead, his corpse was still there. We know for a fact that whoever dies due to Alex, or anyone else that had been affected by the Operator, is taken almost immediately after death. That didn’t happen for Brian.

I like to think that he did get what he was looking for in the end. Remember totheark’s video “Null”? It was their last upload, and in it, the person behind the camera, who we now know was Brian, seemed almost... peaceful. There was a sad kind of feeling to the video, but the way he speaks in it sounds like he has peace of mind. Like he knows he has nothing to fear, because maybe he doesn’t anymore. It’s clear that he knew it would be his last upload, that he knew he would have a showdown with Tim. 

He didn’t care if he died in the end or not, why? Because he knew he would be okay, whether he lived or whether he died. He had nothing to be afraid of anymore. He found Jesus, he found the Ark, and he boarded it. And he knew he was on his way to heaven, away from the flood. Away from the clutches of the Operator.

As for Tim? Some speculate that he killed Jessica and then himself, as before Alex died he said that it wasn’t over. He would have to keep killing the infected, and then himself. That it was the only way to stop the ‘spread’. 

Some think that he continued being controlled by the Operator, and that would be a reasonable thing to believe because, as you may remember, in the last entry Tim suffered a major coughing fit, with Jessica bending down to ask if he was okay. The video then cuts to Tim driving in a car, seemingly composed a bit. 

The camera stays on him for while before he grabs his pill bottle, continues to stare ahead, and looks moments away from bursting into tears before he swirls the camera around so us, the viewers, are facing the direction that the car is being driven. The screen then goes black and the letters displayed on the screen is but three simple words; “Everything is fine.”

IS everything really fine, Tim? No. No, it is not. At least, that’s what I got from it. Tim’s known to lie, and it wouldn’t be a surprise that his last words to viewers would be a reassuring sentence to try and convince him that he’s okay. But I don’t think he’s okay.

At best, I think he continued to live a life with nightmares, hallucinations, and random blackouts that may or may not lead to him having a broken leg. At worst, he found a nice, quiet place to overdose because he didn’t want to suffer anymore. Except he will suffer. He will suffer for eternity.

But yes, this is my theory behind the meaning of the “Ark” and the basis for the series. Has this been done before? Idk, I’ve never seen it before. I can promise you that I’m not stealing someone else’s theory, at least not on purpose. I feel like this makes a lot of sense, and it gives totheark a good motivation as to what they’re after and why they’re after it.

It’s a nice thought that at least somebody finally got what they were after, that they finally got peace after everything that happened to them. I have no proof that Jay did or did not find the Ark. I suppose that his corpse was still physical, I mean, it was still in the real world. But it had clearly been teleported, and he was sitting on a bunch of pages that Alex had drawn. 

They were nowhere near Tim’s house at the college, which is where he died at. And when Tim finally goes back to his house, Jay isn’t there, the pages aren’t there, “Your fault” isn’t written on the mirror a dozen times. So we can assume that really, he wasn’t in the real world. He was in another dimension, likely the Own Zone. We’ve seen Tim go into that place before, but I don’t recall Jay ever going. So Tim can be teleported into that dimension while he’s still alive, and Brian is also there too. But only for a moment. This is also before he died.

So I don’t know. I think Jay was taken to the Operator’s world, like Alex and the poor rock victim. What do you think? 

Even if this theory is utter nonsense it was fun writing. It’s an interesting concept and I definitely enjoyed it. I’ve been literally breathing Marble Hornets for the past few weeks so I couldn’t stop a theory from popping into my mind and then make me think, ‘hey, what if?’

Actually, I’ve been thinking about making a separate blog solely dedicated to Marble Hornets. Should I? I probably will - after all, this blog I have right now is more about Creepypasta rather than Marble Hornets. And I’m a huge Marble Hornets fan so I want something dedicated to it. Also, it’ll give me the opportunity to talk about my unending love for Brian without seeming sudden and obsessed xD

So... yeah. That’s me done. Happy Valentine’s day, btw! I am very lonely, as I assume a lot of you are, so it’s the perfect excuse to write CP fluff and act as if I won’t end up alone with thirty cats. I already have four of ‘em, guess I’m well on my way. That isn’t a bad thing though. Cats are awesome. Prove me wrong.

So yes, I will be sure to get some Valentine’s day content out for you beautiful people tomorrow unless I find myself totally unmotivated. Fingers crossed, right?

[angels-in-overcoats]

Throwback to when we didn’t know who Hoody was and every discussion about it felt we were betting on horse races